Most human languages are transmitted by sounds and one of the most obvious differences between languages is that they sound di

The sounds of language 
The core of phonetics is to identify the characteristics of the sounds which human 
beings can use in language. Sounds can basically be divided into two types: vowels 
and consonants. Vowels are produced by altering the shape of the vocal tract by the 
positioning of the tongue and lips. Consonants are sounds which are produced by a 
partial or complete constriction of the vocal tract.
Vowels 
Vowels are usually described by reference to five criteria, and these are adequate as a 
basic point of reference, although some vowel sounds require more specification. 
1. The height reached by the highest point of the tongue (high, mid, low) 
2. The part of the tongue which is raised (front, centre, back) 
3. The shape formed by the lips (unrounded or spread, rounded) 
4. The position of the soft palate (raised for oral vowels, lowered for nasal 
vowels) 
5. The duration of the vowel (short, long) 

---

5 
Using these features, linguists have constructed a set of standard reference points for 
describing vowels. These are called the cardinal vowels and are usually shown on a 
schematized representation of the mouth, as in Figure 1. In this diagram, the first 
vowel of each pair is rounded, the second unrounded, and all vowels are short. To 
show a long vowel, the symbol [

] is written after the vowel. 
Figure 1: Cardinal vowels 
The cardinal vowels are not all of the vowels found in human languages and some, 
such as [

], are not even very common. There are many intermediate vowel sounds 
which fall between the cardinal vowel points, as we can see if we look at the vowel 
chart for English in Figure 2. 
high 
low 
front 
back 
central 
mid 










---

6